Movements in the Sky
Movements in the Sky
Navigate the knowledge tree: 🌿 Skills ➡ Life Processes
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Navigate the knowledge tree: 🌿 Skills ➡ Life Processes
What Do We See in the Night Sky?
What Do We See in the Night Sky?
As we stand on Papatūānuku (the Earth), we can look up into the sky to see other things in space.
Every 24 hours (1 day) we see te Rā (the Sun), Marama (the Moon) and stars appear to rise in the Eastern part of the sky and set in the West.
Over a month, we see Marama in a different place in our sky compared to the stars and te Rā.
Over the course of a year, we see te Rā, Marama, and the planets of our Solar System appear to move compared to other stars in the sky.
Although the stars appear to rise and set each night, they appear to stay at the same place compared to each other. Their patterns have stayed the same for thousands of years, allowing us to join them in to pictures, called constellations. They create our map of the sky.
Planets and moons seem to move between the stars, from one night to the next.
Activity: Stellarium-Web
Activity: Stellarium-Web
Use the interactive below or click on this link: https://stellarium-web.org
Click on the time/date menu to move time forward until you see the sun rise and then set.
What time is the sun rising tomorrow?
What time is the sun setting tomorrow?
Change the date until you see the moon take a thin crescent (banana) shape, then change the hours to see when the moon will rise and set.
What time does the moon appear to rise on this day?
What time is the moon setting on this day?
Constellations
Constellations
The constellations are our map of the sky, and vary from culture to culture.
In reality, the stars are constantly moving. They are just so far away that our eyes cannot detect their movement.
You can easily see prominent constellations like the Southern Cross (Crux), Orion, and Canis Major, as well as bright stars like Alpha Centauri, Sirius, and Canopus. The constellations of Scorpius and the Pleiades (Matariki) are also visible at certain times of the year.
Parallax
Parallax
Why do things that are close seem to moe more than things that are far away? Consider driving down the motorway. The lamp posts on the side of the road seem to whiz past you, but the distant hills and clouds seem to hardly move at all.
Watch the video - Which objects are closer, and which objects are farther? How can you tell?
The more distant an object is, the less it moves across your FIELD OF VIEW. This effect is called PARALLAX.
Things that are closer make a large angle compared to our eye, taking up more of our field of view than things that are farther away. When they move past us (or we move past them), they also cross more of our field of view than things farther away.
Similarly, when things move across our field of view, farther objects seem to travel less distance across our vision.
Activity: Observing Parallax
Activity: Observing Parallax
Stretch your arm out and raise your thumb.
Close one eye and look carefully at where your thumb appears to be compared to the background.
Bring your thumb closer and repeat steps 2 and 3. How much does your thumb appear to move now?
When astronomers look out into space, stars also do something similar. The Earth's movement around the Sun makes the close stars appear to move more than the background stars. Precise meeasurements and a bit of maths tells them exactly how far these stars are.
Can you tell which of these stars seem closer than the others?
Since te Rā, Marama and the planets in our own Solar System are all much closer than the stars and other objects in space, they appear to ove more compared to stars outside of our Solar System.
Over the course of thousands of years, we have developed knowledge that has allowed us to come to understand that the things we see in the sky are caused by where we are and how we move in the universe.
The first few minutes has everything you need to know about parallax and how it helsp us figure out distances to the stars!
More on Movements in the Sky
📕 article 📸 image 🎮 interactive 🎦 videoMore on Movements in the Sky
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